The Careless Rooster

Roosters are found in almost all of the houses the world over. They are of different colours and breeds, the same is the case here in our city. Sometime back our neighbour too got a craze of them, initially he had a plan to start a poultry farm on large scale but later he changed mind and thought to have it at a smaller level. We were very enthusiastic about the idea of a poultry farm just adjacent to our house as it shall be easier for us to see a variety of chicken of different colors. So we started waiting for the idea to materialise and take a practical shape. The neighbour was however not in a great hurry therefore the project was taking a long time in getting off the drawing board. Every day we used to look over the hedge to see if the work had started.

My siblings had become so crazy that we started asking the children on other side of the fence that by when shall the chicken arrive. The days were passing so slow in the wait. Noise of a heavy vehicle attracted my attention one Wednesday morning. I peeped out of my window and found that a truck was in the process of being parked in my neighbour’s house. The truck was laden with bricks and sand etcetera, it was the first indication that project was finally off the drawing board into the execution phase. The sand, bricks etcetera were followed by labourers and masons. The construction work was slow initially but soon started picking up the pace. Within a week the building was almost constructed, then came the phase of electricity supply, ventilation and even the air conditioning, as it was supposed to be a small poultry farm but the owner’s intention was to organise it in a scientific manner. So that after gaining the requisite experience he could start a bigger farm on commercial basis at a bigger scale. We did not have an air conditioned house by that time, therefore it was quite natural for us to admire the luck of those chickens that were going to be so effectively protected from savage weather.

With the completion of an ideal controlled chicken shed; came the stage of feed arrival, stocking, arrangement for vaccination of newly arrived chicken and acquisition of medicated accessories for the workers. The day all preparations completed, chicken landed. It was an interesting scene to see chicken coming in a medium sized lorry and being offloaded in the farm. To our disappointment it was a very small flock consisting of five hens and a rooster. We were later told by the neighbour’s son that rest of the chicken shall arrive in next ten or fifteen days. We all went to see the chicken foul and were amazed to see five beautiful hen and a very active looking vibrant rooster. The rooster was so active that it soon started crowing and its voice could be heard very clearly in our house too. It was his habit that he used to crow at 6 am in the morning, we got so used to his punctuality that we stopped using our alarm clock and were able to timely get up from the bed. We used to praise the rooster for his punctuality amongst our friends a lot and many of my cousins even stayed a night at our house to observe the rooster’s punctuality for themselves too.

But one day in the morning we could not get up in time, were awakened by pained cries and screams of an animal/ bird. Curiously I saw out of my window and happened to see a painful scene, the neighbour was holding the rooster from neck, poor bird was flapping its wings screaming at top of his voice. While the furious neighbour carrying a clock in his other hand was angrily pointing to it shouting, YOU OVERSLEPT, due to your carelessness I missed my train. The rooster was being watched with sympathy by the hen but no one could help him. I still remember that scene and often SMILE.

2 Comments

I used to live near a farm when I was younger that had Roosters, best alarm clocks ever, as soon as the sun rose they’d be shouting about it, great if you need to get up early, terrible if you need a lie in and there’s no snooze button lol